April Showers?

So if April showers bring May flowers, what do April Flurries bring? 'Cuz we's gots a bunch o' sno' thi's'morn'n' . I took a couple of pictures, but the stupid computer at work can't handle the # of pix on my camera's card. I connect it, and 5 mins later it still hasn't loaded them (not even transfer, just showing what files are on the card, not even thumbnails, just the list). So mebbe later.

For JE(A)F, I'll assume that was a request. I did know the origin of the quote, sort of, previously and could have found if I felt so inclined (which I'm sure you know), that is why I'm taking the comment as a request. I'll burn you a copy and sent it your way. How are the Shreddies/Vector supplies?

Surrey Critical Mass

So an inaugural Critical Mass was "organised" and it took place yesterday. There were about 50 to 55 riders (I counted 50, but could easily missed a few while we were milling about pre-ride, and a few more could have arrived after I counted; somebody else counted 55). We started of from "City Central", formerly known as Surrey Place Mall, outside the SFU Surrey tower just south of the Rec Centre. We went North along 135A st (past the former Stardust Roller rink where I worked back in '83-'84) to 104ave, East to East Walley Ring Rd, South to Fraser Hwy, East to 148th St (but not before an 'incident' happened while going by Green Timbers, by 144th), North to 100th, East to 152nd, North to 102A, left turn into the mall parkinglot, rode around a bit in the lot making noise & showing our signs to people etc., back out to 152nd North from 102A, West onto 104th all the way back to 135A st and to City Central to complete the circuit.
The ride went pretty well generally speaking. The rain was just a drizzle at the beginning, and about half way through it stopped. A few 'notables' showed up (Bob Bose on a fixie, the local MLA, a neighbouring MLA's spouse...).
To see some video bits of the ride, check out Bob Alstead's cliphttp://www.youneverbikealone.com/surrey-critical-mass-inaugural-ride-20070325 including the "incident". It was pretty freeky, but I could see it developing. I was quite sure that some serious carnage would result.

Quote of the Day

So I was in the South Pointe parking lot, having just purchased my wedge-fries &c. for lunch on the way to work, and I came to a 4-way stop at the same time as an oncoming vehicle (a black Chevy Cavalier thingy, like the one Fi's Jeff drives) and another vehicle, on my right, had just arrived before us. Naturally the one on my right goes 1st as per R-o-W rules, and then I start as soon as he has gone past. But the stupid MoFo Chevy starts to turn left into me, and he doesn't have his turn signal on. Needless to say I yell at him "SIGNAL! SIGNAL!" And then the moron, who had his window down, calls back "But you're on a bike though." As if my being on a bike meant that he didn't have to comply with the MVA, RSBC. He was just lucky I was in hurry to catch my bus or I would have gladly apprised him of his intellectual deficiencies.

Thanks Cpt Fun/Warchild

Man, does Gabe ever come up with The Goods. Check out these clips.




The Guy is Jean-Yves Blondeau, AKA The Rollerman. Here is another clip found by Gabe (similar vein, but not The Rollerman).

Stuff to check out

I know you really want to see what happened during Mini Bike Winter, so this is a reminder to check out the YVR Bikerazzi link to the right. It has a whole ton o' stuff organised (mainly by Yours Truly, but lots of other people had to post their stuff first for me to be able to link it). I still haven't got around to splitting up my Chariot Wars Death Match video into smaller chunks. My 28 min "clip" is toooo long for Youtube, so I'll have to break it into 3 pieces minimum (thanks to their 10 min max rule). I have put all the clips together and made a DVD for those who would like one. Ask and you shall receive. Ditto my digi-pix. Its hard to believe that MBWIV was only 3 weeks ago. It seems like it is so long since I was in Portland, chugging Sparks etc, cruising around on my mini, meeting all sorts of new people. It really makes me wonder why I come to work. Dealing with morons all day is a real downer. And worse than that, it is in an industry which exemplifies excessive consumption, not just of fossil fuels, but of many things. I'm surrounded by wastrels (except for my favourite reservationist). Oh well, at least I get to go to another Bike Bee planning Pot-Luck this afternoon après-travail.

Blog Hiatus over, for now.

It is 12 days since the last post, but I was a little busy. I decided to go to Portland for Mini Bike Winter IV ( Feb 14-19, but I wasn't going to be there for it all). Which meant that I had to finish prepping the mini by Thurs 15th when the 1st batch were leaving town in order to get a ride. We left the vicinity of The Pink Palace about 23:30, and arrived in Portland (PDX) at our crash-site (AKA The Kitten Shack, home of the previously mentioned Agent Lapis) at 04:15. I left Portland Mon 19th 09:15. In between was one BIG, LONG, ACTION PACKED FLURRY of MADNESS and PARTYING. I had thought about blogging the gory (litterally) details, but I was too tired afterwards that I needed recovery time. And now that nearly a week has gone, I don't really feel the urge to blog it. So go to the Midnight Mass blog (check lynx on the right) and let Midnight-Simon tell you his version. I have a bunch of pix/video not uploaded to any site, but I'll get around to it eventually. Note, while Simon has a 6 min. taste of the Charriot Wars Deth Match, mine is 28 mins long (just excuse my giggling in the background [when you eventually see my video] as it was extremely funny and wild, plus I was under the influence of Sparks*). My shift is coming to an end, gotta go.

Climate Change

Triane, of the Recyclistas in Victoria (www.recyclistas.ca) came to the Winter-Bee, and did a little talk about making Zines, as they had received some sort of grant to publish one about climate change, and then asked if any would like to submit something for it. Well, my creativity doesn't kick in at someone else's behest, it just comes on its own, unbidden, randomly. But on the bus ride home, I was inspired. My brain came up with a virtual epic. So I had to pare it down to 1 sheet of legal sized paper. Here it is (but it will be hard to read unless you double click each image to see it full sized).

Something Funny

Back in early December, it was so cold, Mr Cat needed a sweater (although he didn't quite believe us).

Winter Bee Wrap-Up

So the Bike Bee, winter version AKA the Winter-Bee, was held Feb 10/11, for those who didn't check out the link, and it was held just around the corner from Gilly Gilly bo-hilly (for those who know the song, yes I know it should be Gilly Gilly bo-billy), and I even saw Gilly & Megoon on my way to a pre-bee planning meeting. We did a variety of "winter" (Wet Coast style) workshop/maintainance things, socialised, and generally had a ton-o-fun (and it wasn't even CH3CH2OH powered)

Bikes Inside party, the brief version

It started 20:30 Sat 3rd, ended, that is to say I left, @ 04:47 Sun 4th., I finally felt recovered ca. 16:00 Mon 5th. I don't have enough time left in my shift for the full story and work both.

Un-Race

So a while back on the "fixedvancouver" forum (www.fixedvancouver.com) there had been a bit of discussion of an informal race in traffic, only start and destination predetermined. It boiled down to a "lets meet 17:30 at the art gallery fountain fri feb 2 and see what happens".

I went there, so did a few others (about 8 total) but some of them did not come to "race". With excuses like "I didn't bring a helmet" or "I brought the bike with no brake" or "I have to be somewhere else at XX:XX, and there isn't enough time" or "I can't race, I'm too old" (I guess I covered all their excuses). Of course my sarcastic side came out immediately to ask why s/he didn't bring a helmet/bike with a brake, quit wasting time because if we had left by even 18:00 the "race" would have been over by now (we didn't actually leave till 1845), and as to age, the over-the-hill decrepit person was some mewling wet-behind-the-ears 29yo.

The four of us who decided to make a go of it were "Alex", a 17yo on a 'cross bike; "Camillo", a mid 20's (I guess) bike messenger on a fixie, "Clancey", a 36yo (I think he said, but maybe 35, mid-30's anyway) high-school teacher on a flip-flop SS/fixed hub, and I on my Brodie (a significant disadvantage technologically unless a lot of hill-climbing AND soft ground is involved). The destination we chose was the UBC pool, by the old bus-loop.

We headed off down Howe St in some very heavy traffic, I was the last one to hit the actual street, but by the time we got to Davie St, I was ahead by several car lengths. It was quite a thrill, zipping along at the edge of the curb past the stopped cars, between two lanes of moving traffic, but only moving 1/2 the speed of the bikes (eeeeyyikes! that was close! A transit bus on one side and an SUV on the other!), nipping around the right-turner... I was still in the lead as I was crossing the Granville St bridge, and a couple of times I thought I heard something behind me, but still nothing. Then, as I turned my head to do a shoulder check before moving into the lane to take the Fir St off-ramp, I see him. It's Camillo, draughting me, and the he passes as we take the off-ramp. I almost catch him at Broadway, but he is just a bit ahead. I catch him at Burrard St (red light, lots of traffic), and we blast off again ASAP (just before the light actually goes green). Same thing happens at Arbutus. I looked behing us both times to check for the other 2, but no sign. Did they have worse traffic luck, or take a different route? Unfortunately, the sprinting and icy cold air was not a good combo for my lungs. At Vine I had to back off considerably, to a slow cruise pace to be more precise, about 24km/h. My right lung felt like it was going to explode with every exhale (inhaling wasn't too bad, oddly enough). My legs were fine, but my lungs were done. After a little while I was able to speed up a bit, but not very much. Broadway was a mess because of roadworks in the Macdonald area, which slowed me down to a sub-lung pace. Single lane, stuck behind a mini-van which insisted on hugging the curb, but was too erratic in its lane placement to risk a left-sided pass (traffic was only 1 lane each way). Finally I was able to get by when she had to stop for a person who didn't know how to turn his wheel for a right turn (or so it would seem. There was nothing to prevent him from completing the turn).

I plugged along, past Alma, zig-zagging at Highbury to 10th Ave and on to UBC. I stopped at the lights at Wesbrook Mall. There was no traffic at all except for the 2 vehicles beside me also on 10th W.bound. I couldn't see any of the other cyclists there, so I decided to wait for the lights. I shouldn't have. It took 2 minutes, no lie; I checked my watch. So when I got to the pool, Clancey and Camillo were already there. No Alex. Clancey got ther 1st (he went Cornwall, Pt Grey, 4th, Blanca, Chancellor) and Camillo arrived 2 mins later (according to Clancey) and I another 7 mins after that. Alex arrived about 3-5 mins after me. If it hadn't been for the icy air and waiting @ Wesbrook, my timing would have been much better. But at least this "old" geezer wasn't DFL. We all agreed that the 1st bit in all the traffic was the most fun, and decided to do something like it 1st & 3rd Fridays. We all rode back, more leisurely, and I said goodbye at 6th & Granville, to wait for the bus home.

Belated CM rehash

It seems a little odd to post 8 days after the fact, but I haven't had much chance before now, or when I did have the time, I didn't feel like it. So, as per usual I headed for Critical Mass on Friday last (Jan. 26th). But what wasn't usual was that I had done a day shift (0600 -> 1400) as somebody was away on holiday. Plus, since I didn't want to be lugging around all my workday impedimenta and I had left behind something I wanted to bring to CM with me, I went home after work. The problem was that I got delayed leaving work (an unfortunate trend. Newbies!), and the bus was 25 mins late after I got to my stop. So it ended up that I only had half an hour between getting off the one bus, and getting back on another to town. What especially annoyed me was that I could not find the item I had left behind!

Ah well. So I got to the art gallery and began to look for a guy with a Montreal Canadiens tuque. Oh yeah, at the last Bike-Bee meeting somebody accidentally took my left bootie, and left his right bootie behind, so we had arranged for a swap. I got to the VAG about 15 mins later than anticipated (again, the bus. I got back on the same one I had been on, but after its turn-around. So he was only 15 mins late now as he didn't take his break @ Crescent Beach). Anyway, I was scanning the crowd for said same tuque from the steps overlooking the fountain, occassionally calling aloud "Andrew" (that's right Kreskin, the left-bootied one was named Andrew). Plus I was conversing with some of the regulars. At last, a minute before 6, the swap was consumated.

The ride itself was mostly like the others, see some regular faces, chat with them; see some new faces, chat with them too. Unfortunately, one of the regulars and Bike-Bee'er, Skyler, had a crash on his fixie (wrecked the front wheel, did a bit of a number to his face from what I hear), and the ambulance had to be called (he's OK now, I hear). Of the people with whom I chatted, a guy in a kilt (he was cheating. He had bike shorts on beneath it.) and a young woman in trews (after all Jan. 25th was only the day before), another young woman ("Britney") from Colorado (attending UBC. She's been here 2 years now) was riding an old Girls bike (pink, woven wicker basket, banana seat, streamers in the hand-grips. The bike cost $5, ditto the basket, and $6 for the streamers), and une jeune fille française très enchantée qui s'appelle "Anne-Sophie". She was on a unicycle. It was quite a big one. The wheel looked like it was 36". It also had a looped handle which went from beneath the seat to somewhat infront of the seat. On this handle was a brake lever! It was equiped with a V-type brake. So I asked A-S about it. She told me it was for going down steep hills. She had only been in Vancouver 2 weeks at the time, and was staying in a hostel. The funniest part was that I was able to guess her hometown (Aix-en-Provence), and the next place her family lived (Grenoble) before they moved to Paris. And the only clues she told were that she was from SE France and she had also lived near the Alps (first she said she was from the SE, and then said she came to Vancouver because she missed the mountains. I asked "the Pyranees?" She said the Alps. So I took a stab at Aix, and asked if when she was in the Alps if it were Grenoble. Well, after that I was in like Flynn (or perhaps it was my linguistic brilliance, my dashing white hair, my charming personallity, or the loan of an Allen key). Anyway, it was fun talking with her (she understood my French perfectly well, but wanted to practice her own English) and I wished I could stay longer after the ride ended @ the ANZA club. But I had been up since 0400 (it was 2045 when I left), had to be up @ 0300 2 more days. A-S said she had been riding a unicycle since she was 6yo (I would guess she was 22yo). In the summer she and a group of 11 others (of whom she believes only 2 are bicyclists) are doing a big unicycle tour in Southern Europe. Starting in Slovenia, going into Italy, Corsica, France and Spain. Oh Oh. Blogger to be down soon. Gotta stop now!!!!

WiFi's Back, for now at least

So I have some intenetting of more import than blobbing to the world. So just check out the latest from my lynx.

Emergency Repair

So the past few days riding with the wow in my rear wheel has been driving me nuts, itching to get a chance to try to fix it (earliest opportunity will be Wednesday). I was on my way to the bus stop, trying to get in a bit early to have a chin-wag with my "supervisor", when I hear 'ssssssSSSSSSssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSsssssssss' repeatedly. A tear had developed in my sidewall (thanks again to that pothole) and now the tube had ruptured there. Changing the tube would be pointless, so I hoofed it to O'Hagan's to get a new tire. No dice. All out of 26x1.5 tires, not just the slicks I wanted. No narrow 26"ers. A batch is arriving in the AM, but not much help now. I didn't feel like going a bit further on to S.Sry Cycles and trying my luck there as I would now only have enough time to effect some MacGuyvering, change tubes, inflate, and get on the bus (the earlier one I wanted to get pulled away just as I got to it on my way to O'Hagan's). I headed for the garbage cans by the bus stop for materiel. I was hoping for something like a plastic/foil wrapper. But before I got to the garbage, I found in the parking lot behind it a plastic cap from a bottled water carbuoy (an 18L jug). This was just the thing (well, maybe a little too skookum, but it would work). So after installing the new tube (as I always cary a spare), I wrapped the plastic strip around the tube at the point where the tire was ripped, and re-levered the tire into place. Re-inflated the tire to 40psi and headded for the bus. It arrived about 9 mins later. In Ditchmond, at a gas station, I put in another 10psi. Not as much as I would normally have in it, but it would not be good to have the full 65 in such a situation. Now I have TONS of bike stuff to do tomorrow!

Wow

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I figured out why my bike felt funny to ride. The rear wheel has a "wow" in it. I hit a small pothole the other day (there are so many new ones from the recent snow/freeze etc). The wow almost caused me to wipe-out yesterday morning, part blame also to the black ice. On its own the black ice gave me a few episodes palpitations.

Default

No, the title has no significance to the content of the posting.

Last Friday on my way home from work I had a bit of an adventure. My 8 hrs was up @ 4pm, although the stuff I do now on Fridays doesn't have a precise time like the dispatch schedule, but I got held up by a last minute item that cropped-up. So by the time I change my clothes and headed out the door it was 4:45, got to the bus stop just a few mins after 5pm (I didn't ride quite as fast because my bike felt wierd. Something wasn't right, but I put it out of my mind for the time being). I just missed a bus, but being Rush Hour I knew another would be along shortly. I hopped on the 354, but not too far along after Hwy 17 I could see a lot of traffic. We were only going about 80km/h because it was starting to back-up. Not a good sign. By the time we got to the Hwy10 overpass I could see the 99 was a parking lot just ahead, and the bus was pulling off the freeway (but was in a long line to do so). I wondered what was up as the 354 does not pull off @ "Matthews" like the 351. After the bus got to within a couple lengths of the traffic lights he told us that the 99 was closed up ahead and that all the busses were being diverted.

We got over the overpass and I could see that traffifc was heavy, but moving. But VERY Shortly afterwards slowed down to 20 km/h, and then became stop & go. Darn! I could have got off the bus and ridden, but now there was no place for the bus to pull over "safely" to let people off it. After crawling along averaging 10 km/h, we got to Scott Rd, and he let a bunch of us off there. I misplaced one of my gloves, so it took me quite a while to find it in my gear, and then hook-up my lights and pannier. As the traffic on this part of #10 was a bit better, by the time I caught up with the bus I had been on it was at 132nd St. A few few 10's of metres later traffic slowed down to a jogging pace at best. I passed several busses, of particular note were the two 351's. the 2nd one would have been the one for mee if I had left work on time. And with the mess he still had to crawl along in, he would have made it to my stop about an hour after I arrived by bike! Hah! It was really fun passing all those miles of almost stationary cars. And to top it off, some idiot cabbie tried to by-pass the King George "parking-lot" by leaving it at the southbound foot of Woodward Hill to get to Colebrook Rd. His ill-advised, through the remaining snow, Cross-Counrty adventure ended about 30metres from KGH and about 10metres short of the gravel access road (the old KGH before the Colebrook overpass was built) that leads to Colebrook. Hah Hah!!

Darn that freekin' WiFi neighbour

For the past couple weeks my interneting has been limited to the 4 days a week at work. The unsecured network of the witless neighbour has not been available. The signal is too weak to connect. The network shows up for a few seconds and is gone. Very frustrating when you try to use someone else's internet but can't! I think the person must have changed the router's location, and something is interfering with/blocking the signal.

I've started working another day per week. (Egad! 5 days a week! you say, How on Earth can one survive with only 2 days off per week? I don't know, but I'm starting to find out.) It wouldn't be so bad if things/people didn't keep cropping up to use up my valuable down-time. And this weather! It has been a big time-sucker-upper. All the de-salting, re-lubing, packing around extra clothing/gear, not to mention the extra travel time required to get from A->B.

Untitled

Arrghh! After some 15hrs or so of sleep, woke up to a sore throat, sinus congestion, and other nasty symptoms of a cold. Went to work (oh joy), browsed the net, and found this funny video

http://tvinjapan.com/blog/2007/01/06/the-long-tail-of-bicycles-over-lakes/

Back soon.

The Pressure Is On

Well, it has happened. My blog has been noted by a "member" (as "membership" is not defined) of the velogencia. I have handed out a few of my cards which had this blob's (sic) URL, and I thought I had told her about my blob, but I guess I was mistaken. I assume she found it from the lynx on the Midnight Mass blog. OK, I know this is a little convoluted, if Midnight Simon listed it, wasn't it "noted" before? Perhaps, but since I know for sure that I gave him my card ( & KatieJ), he could put up a link without actually checking the blog itself. So now it's been noted, I'll have to "produce" a little more regularly.

This morning's ride to work was marginally better than yesterday's. - Yesterday I had a late start due to an unforseen drive-train problem I noted while re-installing my patched tube I had left to cure. So I was hurrying, which of course slowed me down (the usual Haste Makes Waste scenario) and I left @ 0416. I had been hoping to leave early, not 15mins late, because of the wind. But I wasn't worried as the wind was from the South last night as late as 2300. Imagine my surprise to open the front door to get a direct blast from the WEST! The worst direction of all!!! While travelling North, I was fighting a vicious cross-wind, and Eastbound into the headwind was a leg-killer. I had to walk half the distance across the Alex Fraser because it was too dangerous to ride. I got to work 30 mins late, my legs were about to fall off, and my back was killing me. Good thing I keep an emergency supply of Robaxisal as work. By comparison this morning was a breeze, because the "breeze" was from the South. At first I was worried when I got up. I was a half-hour behind, I could hear heavy rain and the wind was howling (there had benn NO wind at 2300 when I went to bed), and I needed to fix my rack. I was getting a little panicky when I was again 15 mins behind and starting in on rack repairs. Then my phone's alarm started sounding. Exasperated ofer another delay, I pulled it out of its pouch on my knapsack shoulder-stap, and flipped it open while cursing the snooze function I had not turned off. The Time, 0330??!!?? WTF? Crap! I had thought it was 0330 when I got up, but it had to have been 0230. And I thought that I was awakened by my alarm, but must have imagined that. Ah well, after a few deep breaths to settle down from my anxious state, I dealt with my rack and braved the elements at the confirmed time of 0347. And thank goodnes the wind was mostly from the South, with a small Easterly component. The highlight of the ride was zipping along the Hwy91 shoulder @ 55km/h. The low point being the excess 20lbs of rain I must have absorbed along the way! Hard to do when wearing regular cycling togs under raingear. I had to change gloves 2x, my knapsack was sogged, and the rain had managed to permeate my rainpants to my shorts (i.e. the padding inside. soggy bum, yuck) and leggings.

Oh well. I survived. I have my Penguin calendar to cheer me up. The one I brought to work is called "Penguins at Play". The other 4 are hanging up at home.

Back In the Saddle

Well, another month, another Critical Mass ride. I was planning on doing the Midnight Mass on Thurs. 28th, but my belated Christmas dinner at Frances' went a little later than anticipated, and I didn't feel like riding with a full stomach, so I didn't go.

During Critical Mass, a cop decided to cause problems while we were on Commercial Drive. Normally they just ignore The Mass, but this guy for some reason decided to block half the road, and when the majority had gone by, he picked one of the stragglers out and stopped him for not wearing a helmet (it turned out to be the guy's 1st day in Vancouver, moving here from Montreal). So Ifny, who happened to be near the back as well, turned back to see what was going on. Although the cops did not see her actually riding, they decided that they would give her a ticket too for being helmetless (she was, however, wearing bunny-ears and an Elmer Fudd cap and was riding a 14" mini, so it was a farcical sight). When she refused to give her name (as they actually had no grounds for detaining her, since they did not see her riding), they called for a Paddy Wagon, hand-cuffed her (she's 5'3" tall), and hauled her away. They later let her out at Clark Dr & E Hastings St. All this nonsence took over 1/2 an hour, "requiring" 4 cop cars, the Paddy Wagon, and 7 cops.

I went to the after party for a while at the Anza Club, but left a few mins after 10pm as I needed to get up early for work.

I got up at 3am (OK, the alarm went off then. I didn't actually get up till 0330. I think my Christmas present from one of the drivers had only just worn off as I was woke up, because I was really tired). I left just about 0403, and the ride was mostly uneventful. I did get a puncture just before getting to the Alex Fraser, so that took 15 mins to fix. This made me 5 mins late (mainly because my tire wasn't fully re-inlated so I couldn't ride quite as fast. My shoulder still doesn't like using the mini-pump. I guess I'll have to do some re-hab type excercises). And upon arrival, the surprise waiting for me was that the schedule got changed (as somebody quit, and things are in a state of flux for a while) and nobody informed me to come in the afternoon shift instead. Ah well, the company will have to recompense me for the error, and I will leave shortly (as the buses are just now starting to run for Saturday service) and do some errands.

The really annoying thing about the new guy leaving, is that he did it just before New Year's. Now I have to work the afternoon/evening of NYE. But the good news is that afer the new new guy is trained, I will get some different shifts so I won't have to ride in if I don't want to. At least that is the plan. Oh well, enough for now.